AfriForum as an Association

AfriForum is an NGO in South Africa whose stated mission is somewhat diverse.  A part of it’s mission is to protect the rights of minority groups.  AfriForum has expanded its sphere of influence and recently decided to enforce the law where it feels that the State is not doing this.  Today it announced that it would prosecute the son of our President Mr Jacob Zuma.  It stated that it wanted to make sure that all South Africans were equal before the law.  President Zuma’s son, Duduzane, killed a passenger in a taxi when his car, driven recklessly, smashed into the taxi.  These facts were established at an enquiry.  The case was then referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) who have not taken any further action against Duduzane.  The inference here is that the President’s children get preferential treatment before the law.

With reference to the role of Associations in terms of the Threefold Social Order, AfriForum is clearly, in this case, placing itself between the Liberty and the Equality spheres.  It is keeping them clearly identifiable and separated.  On the one hand it wants the aggrieved family to be afforded the freedom to life itself and on the other side it wants the alleged reckless individual to be prosecuted before the law and not have preferential rights.  In this way, this association is keeping society in check.  It is keeping the Liberty magnet separate from the Equality magnet. In this way, each magnet learns what it is and needs to be.

In this particular case AfriForum has found itself doing exactly the right thing to help our motor – Society – turn.  It can become more and more conscious in modern societies how Associations can align themselves between the magnets effectively and have the most effective consequence on behalf of us all.